Audio Quality and Performance
As I mentioned in the opening, the main thing I use the original Vista’s for is when I’m doing lawn work. So of course when testing the Vista 2’s that was the first thing I set out to test as well. While it isn’t jogging, the vibrations are good at loosening them out of your ears and it is a perfect situation to be able to push the limits of the active noise canceling.
So in my initial testing while mowing I was able to see a difference flipping between the active noise canceling and having it off. The mower however is still loud enough that the Vista 2’s aren’t able to cancel all of the noise out. The combination of the Vista 2’s being in your ears which you would call passive noise cancellation, the ANC, as well as playing music together was enough to take that noise down to a low hum which was a nice improvement. On the other end of that spectrum, I was able to completely cut out the sound of my neighbors mowing using the same setup when in my office. Having even a slight buffer to cut the noise down a little made a big difference.
In my experience, active noise cancelation works best when cutting noise out like in a waiting room or coffee shop. Even trying to reproduce those sounds doesn’t do as good of a job as the real-life situation. But overall I would say the active noise canceling that the Vista 2’s offer is good, but not on the same level as Sony or Bose. Even the Airpods Pro will most likely perform better with the ANC. So there is still room for improvement, but I like that it is included. Cutting out background noise is one of the main reasons I use an earbud or in-ear solution. Beyond that, I gravitate to large over-ear headphones or speakers.
As for the fit and fitment, the Vista 2’s didn’t change. So while they are a little large I find them to be very comfortable. More importantly with the wing on the eargel that hooks into the top of your ear, they do a great job of staying in. The number 2 eargel that comes preinstalled worked well for both my wife and myself. But having the two other size options can be helpful as well to fine tune things. I do wish that complyfoam had an option available for them as well. But they have had all over Jaybird products, but with the full cover that the Vista and Vista 2’s have they haven’t brought anything out.
For audio performance, the Vista 2’s didn’t change from the original Vista’s. They sound great though they are a touch bass-heavy. A lot of people will prefer than anyhow and it can be tuned out in their app by using the flat profile and dropping the bass down one 1 decibel. The audio performance is exactly what I loved about the original Vista’s and while I wouldn’t ever be against even better performance. I’m glad that playing with things didn’t hurt their performance at all.
